What Game Is This Old Scorekeeper Used For?
1/10/2013 7:43:22 AM
What Game Is This Old Scorekeeper Used For?
Hi everyone - sorry for what may seem like a newbie question, but what game is this scorekeeper for:
classicbilliards.net/html/scorekeeper.cfm
I have a very similar one that I inherited from my grandfather. I thought maybe it was for straight pool, but in that game, the goal is to get to 100, and each row only has 50. Any ideas/thoughts/links would be very helpful, thank you!
chicagobilliardsWhat Game Is This Old Scorekeeper Used For?
Replies & Comments
Zeke on 1/10/2013 8:23:56 PM
It's primary use was always straight pool (14.1) but any game requiring keeping "count" could use it.
Your notion of straight pool being to 100 is true, but not exclusive. Many play to 75.
Any multiple of 25 seems to fit straight pool "winning" scores. Matter of fact, I suggest 50 is a very common score keeping configuration. Once up; once back - you have 100.
Fastfish on 6/16/2014 5:26:02 PM
An abacus is just an old style way to keep track. They have been used in Pool & Snooker with many variations.
billiardsforum on 11/19/2015 6:45:16 AMI talked to Ken Hash at Classic Billiards and he said that this type of score keeper is usually used for snooker mostly, but that players also use it for pool games.
Dano on 4/30/2017 9:54:16 PM
I actually am old enough to remember this game.
100 points was the usual game, but people could pick and agree to play to any amount. For example most tournament competitions were played to 125. You use the beads to count in multiple ways. Playing to 100 you could go up the string and then back down it. I also remember strings that had the 50 unlabeled beads on the left and you had 1, 2, 3, etc. (or 50, 100, 150, etc.) labeled beads on the right. Every time you went through the 50, you would push them all over and start again and move one of the labeled beads on the right, moving another labeled bead for each 50 bead circuit you completed on the left.
Like @Fastfish stated this is only one configuration. There were more.
The main object of all of different bead systems reached a common goal; It had to be flexible so the players could call what they wished to play to 50, 100, 125 or whatever they wanted.
Another variation of straight pool would be instead of counting 1 for each ball pocketed, you get to count the number on the ball, for example 9 points for the 9 ball. I loved this variation as a kid. It allowed for fewer times to have to break, for that is the hard part of the game. Leaving the last ball in a place that you could hit it in, but also break the next rack off of the careen and you had to call that ball off of the rack you broke. It is very hard to be consistent. It was rumored at the time that Willie Mosconi cleared 10 of these in a row. If true, it seems unworldly.
What Game Is This Old Scorekeeper Used For?
- Title: What Game Is This Old Scorekeeper Used For?
- Author: chicagobilliards (Peter Smith)
- Published: 1/10/2013 7:43:22 AM
